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Gambling911.com can now reveal exclusively that the reason online bookmakers have stayed clear of any so-called “bailout deal” with the “owners” of BetED.com has to do with the notion that they simply cannot be trusted.
“These are guys who, after being indicted, entered their office and began smashing all the computers and chasing the employees away,” a source told Gambling911.com while in Costa Rica, the hub for online gambling establishments catering to North American players.
BetED.com and its two “owners” found themselves caught up in a sting operation conducted by the US Attorney’s Office out of Baltimore. That office set up a phony payment processing business, indicting David Parchomchuk and Darren Wright, naming them as “owners” and seizing millions of dollars. BetED shut its doors almost immediately and are yet to pay players.
Both men claim they are not owners of BetED.com.
“Well Darren must have been a pretty important employee then since he had the biggest office in all of Costa Rica,” another individual told G911.
A number of bookmakers and sportsbook operators expressed privately to Gambling911.com their fear that the two BetED representatives were prepared to work with law enforcement, specifically the US Attorney’s Office in Baltimore.
Last week, Heritage Sports, a well-established betting firm, reportedly pulled out of a deal with BetED.com according to the website Covers.com. Representatives from BetOnLine.com, also mentioned as “being in talks” regarding a potential bailout, expressed reservations about dealing with Wright and Parchomchuk.
“I wouldn’t go near these guys with a ten foot pole,” one bookmaker not involved in discussions with BetED told Gambling911.com last week.
After nearly five years of investigating Internet gambling businesses, the Baltimore probe is widely believed to have started winding down, according to numerous sources familiar with the matter.
Affected players are encouraged to file claims with the US Attorney's Office out of Baltimore in order to recover funds. Washington State players are discouraged from doing so as you would be in violation of local state laws.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
